Corsair DDR3 CL8 1600MHz XMS3 Dominator 6GB Kit

Packaging & Appearance

The package arrived in a smart if somewhat basic cardboard box which as you can see from the picture below is quite a lot larger than the modules themselves. Surrounding the modules are a few air-bags which in turn protect the over sized plastic blister style packaging. As these modules are hot off the manufacturing conveyor belt they didn't arrive with any inner sleeve that would normally be found on a retail product but luckily, I feel confident about installing a memory module so don't require any demeaning instructions.

The modules themselves are very striking with their matte black ribbed heatsink, The front of the module has all the details you should need such as Vdimm requirements and timings. Because of the heatsink, the memory modules are approx double the height of a standard ram module, The height of the PCB surprised me most however as it is nearly 1cm taller than that of a standard module.

The width of the memory modules were thin enough to easily fit them side by side in the DIMM slots located directly next to one another so motherboard compatibility should not be a problem but because of the height I would stay clear of a motherboard with sockets directly next to a CPU socket as this could prevent a CPU cooler being fitted.

The heatsink can be separated into three separate heatsinks with the top section removable via 3 Allen key screws. This top section is fixed to the bottom section via a bracket that slides between the two side heatsinks. The top heatsink also has two thin strips of thermal interface tape attached to the bottom.

I would have liked to show you the memory integrated chips themselves but despite ample amounts of heat and force the modules just wouldn't separate from the heatspreaders. We have however contacted Corsair who can confirm that the modules have Elpida A-die chips on them.

So in typical Dominator style this memory kit is stunning to look at, VERY well built and no doubt cools those stubborn IC's down a treat. How do they perform though. It's time we found out...

Most Recent Comments

Unfortunatley, simply using the memory dividers resulted in the memory being unstable (1866mhz). I could have lowered the CPU divider and adjusted the Bclk frequency but no configuration would have left the CPU frequency exact unless I forfeited some memory speed.

We now have some OCZ (same spec as the Corsair) which should give a better comparison, stock vs stock.Quote

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